Melted Ice Always Runs Downhill
by PikaCheeka
Summary: Hermione, on Cristmas eve, struggles to untangle her mixed feelings toward all her male friends and enemies as well as her family, which seems lost to her. But no one realizes the immediate danger she wanders into except a certain someone...Harry? Ron? Dr


Summary: This is about Hermione trying to sort out her mixed feelings toward all her male friends and her parents, who seem lost to her. She's walking around London Christmas Eve, in the snow, an no one sees the immediate danger she is suddenly in except a certain someone...

This is not a romance, more of a self-discovery. It is very different from most of my work and very short. It is not meant to be angsty, but, knowing my luck, it probably is.

AN- For some odd reason, Microsoft word is messed up on my computer, so I'm sorry if the font is big or if the margins are demented.

Melted Ice Always Runs Downhill

By PikaCheeka

The snow was still falling. It would be falling forever, so it seemed. I sighed and rested my head against the window of the muggle bookstore, trying to get some Christmas shopping done. It's last-minute, but shopping for my parents is suddenly difficult, as if I don't know them anymore...

It is like that, actually, seeing as I almost never see them anymore staying at the school every vacation. Harry kind of forced me into going home rather cruelly. It was very unlike him, but he said he was only doing it because he wanted me to stop making allowances for him. In the end, he went home as well as Ron. I wonder how his relatives took it. Probably not very well. 

I sighed again and headed for the door. A blast of cold air hit me the moment it opened. I shuddered and pulled my coat around me tighter, wishing I were in my comfortable robes again. Here I am, wishing I didn't have to be a muggle again. I feel almost like a stranger now. And I don't think I like it. It seemed the wizarding world was so inviting, and now, it seems the muggle world has grown more hostile and irritable. 

I groaned inwardly, realizing that by even thinking of the word 'hostile', I was sounding a great deal like a stuck up pureblood. I sounded like Draco. Immediately, I began wracking my mind trying to think of a kinder adjective, trying to sound more like Ron.

Sound like Ron. I smiled to myself, remembering the last time I saw him. He was being dragged off to the car by a very excited Ginny, and was pretending to die a slow and horrible death with his tongue hanging out and his head rolling. It was rather funny. But I wouldn't see him for a while yet. I still had ten more days of vacation. He had ten more days with Ginny, Harry had ten more days with his evil relatives, and I? I had ten more days with my parents, a man and a woman I barely knew any more. 

I suppose they think the same of me now, but it is still so uncomfortable, having to live in the same house as two people whom you love very much but are suddenly lost to you. I have tried to explain school to them, but they nod without understanding. Even when I try to explain something funny Harry, Ron, Neville, or someone else did, they still don't understand it. It's almost like they are a different species. 

There, that sounded a bit less rash. It sounded more like something Harry would say about the Dursleys, even though _they_ are a different specie.

I smiled weakly then, realizing I was still standing in the doorway. Any minute now, some customer would come by and want to get by. I slid to the right a bit so I was out of the wall and leaned against the brick wall, sheltered from the wind by the overhanging roof.

I wondered how he was faring with the Dursleys. I mean, I have heard so many horror stories about them. Maybe they gave him yet another tissue for a present. But they couldn't do that, could they? He was so nice I didn't see how they could hate him.

I suddenly pounded the wall twice, realizing that I was continually thinking about them. Yes, they were my best friends, but...

"Damn..." I muttered. So it was true. I never wanted to admit it before. But it was true, no way around it. Stupid as it may seem, I like one of them, or both.

Now how pathetic is that? My own best friends?

I scowled and turned away from the wall quickly. There was no way they could like me, they didn't act it at all. Besides, they were smart enough not to like their best friend. Unlike me, it seemed.

I succumbed to my own stupidity. Just for a moment, I told myself, just for a moment...

There was Harry, with his jet-black hair and his emerald eyes. Shocking resemblance to young Voldemort. That gives me the chills, wondering if something more than a curse connects them. Perhaps blood?

He is always so kind and brave. He is always the one to go off and fight, whether it be Voldemort or simply Malfoy. But then again, Ron was like that too. But he was also different.

Ron. Red-haired Ron who always seemed to be hurting. Not physically, not even mentally. Emotionally, I think it is his poverty and his family. But than again, it may very well be something more. He is surrounded by Harry and I all day, who both lead confusing lives as well. But both of us have, well, someone to go to. Or, we did. Harry has Black, and I? I'm not so sure anymore.

So maybe I do have a bit more in common with Ron. Maybe we need each other more than anything. But what about Harry?

NO! STOP BEING STUPID!!! I screamed silently.

I flung my hair back over my shoulder and headed across the street, scowling and starring at the ground all the while.

Suddenly, something hit me from behind. I had a sensation of falling and of black, falling into black. Black pit of despair...

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the cold. The cold and the wet, it wasn't even damp, it was wet, like melting snow. It took me a second to realize I was down in the snow. I can't even remember why...

I also noticed a heavy weight against and on my side. Well, not very heavy, probably a dog.

I opened my eyes.

Gray eyes.

Cold as the ice.

Who has gray eyes?

Ron has gray eyes.

But Ron's eyes are more of a blue.

These are icy gray. 

Draco. Malfoy.

I almost screamed but I stopped in time. I didn't want to attract attention just yet. Lucius might be around.

"Are you all right?" he said finally, his rib cage grinding against my shoulder with every breath he took.

"Well, other than the fact that you sent me flying..." I snorted.

"You were walking in front of a car." He said calmly. His eyes were not as cruel as before. Even his mouth, normally a thin line in a frown, was less extreme today. Was it the holidays? Was it the snow? The cold? _Me_? 

I noticed that the snow on him was not melting. His long eyelashes were covered as was his already whitish hair. "Car?" I finally stammered, wondering what it had to do with anything.

He nodded again. "I shoved you out of the way. You weren't looking and walked right in front. I noticed and slammed into you..." 

Great, I thought. So here I am, and I've just had my life saved from my worst enemy, who after all, is a guy. The infamous school cutie, at that.

He cocked his head and stared at me oddly with a confused look on his face. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Then he suddenly pulled away. So fast it took me a second to realize he had. "Can you get up or did I break your arm?" he muttered.

Sitting up, I glanced behind him, wondering if Lucius was around the corner and this wad all some foul trick to kill me. Voldemort was back, and the Death Eaters had 'every right', so they claimed, to kill muggle-borns.

I also realized we were in an alley and the street was empty. But I also saw the skid marks of some hapless driver, so it had to have been real...

"How long have I been out cold?" I finally asked.

He shrugged. "An hour?..."

"You've been sitting out here in the middle of a London snowstorm for an hour waiting for me to wake up?"

He nodded. "Is that bad? I almost never come to London."

I rolled my eyes. "Any snowstorm is bad."

He looked amused, but didn't say anything more about the subject. "What were you thinking about when you stupidly walked in the street?"

"Uh..." Why did he care? Besides, he knew. I could tell by his eyes, which were darting around while staying in the same place. Something only he could do.

"Why are you out now? It's getting dark." I asked another random question.

"I got bored, besides, muggle fiction isn't all that bad."

"You read?"

He paled more and looked away, as if embarrassed.

"I have to go." He sighed. "Father doesn't know I'm here."

"Why not?" I wanted him to stay for some reason.

"Because I didn't tell him?" he raised his right eyebrow and frowned. The look he always gave teachers when asked a question. "I don't tell him much."

"I can't tell my parents anything about school." I said quickly without thinking. "They don't understand."

"Because they're bloody muggles." He spat.

I still don't understand why he's doing this. He's acting nice, or, closer than he's ever been anyway.

"You lonely?" I inquired.

He looked uncomfortable and shifted position. I noticed that his black boots raised him three inches off the ground. And he was still shorter than I was. He suddenly whipped out his hand and grabbed my chin. I winced, his skin was ice. "Are _you_ lonely?" he hissed.

The usual menace still wasn't in his eyes, so he wouldn't laugh. I nodded. 

He sighed heavily. "Aren't we all?" I noticed for the first time that he was wearing cologne. It seemed exotic, probably the super-expensive kind. He could afford it.

Was I actually having a conversation with the one kid I thought I hated more than anyone else in the school? What did that mean? Was there more to Draco than meets the eye? I suddenly had a billion questions, but none of them I could ask him. And why was he acting so different? I could answer that. He wasn't in school. He didn't have a reputation to polish, he didn't have Snape and his father watching his every move. I didn't have Harry or Ron watching my every move either. Was he...jealous of them?

The second that dawned on me he stood up. I quickly did the same, not wanting to be left sitting in the snow. I was probably soaked through anyway, as was he. It had probably never even occurred him to sit on steps somewhere. What he did next was strange. He hugged me.

Just a simple one that a child would give a mother, but still...I hugged him back. He was sickeningly thin, his shoulder blades were like wings. Like an angel from hell. His right arm was also bloodied. Most likely the car grazed him. My entire fault.

Pulling away quickly, he opened his mouth, then slammed it shut again. He looked up at me with his gray eyes, suddenly no longer cold and hard. I had melted the ice. He leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek, then bolted.

It took me a second to realize what he had been going to say. "Draco, wait!" I shouted.

But he was gone. 

He had run, as had the Draco I met today.

Both were gone. I would meet him in school, but the sarcastic cruel Draco. Not this one.

This one was gone.

Never again would he cat like that to me. He always would deep down, as I would for him. But never again would he show it. He couldn't ruin his reputation. Besides, who knew how Harry or Ron would react?

Draco, with the melted eyes, was gone. 

Draco, with the ice, remained.


End file.
